Recent years has seen a dramatic increase in the usage and varied nature of electronic communications. Users may now communicate via email, text message, instant message, SMS, blog postings, chat room postings, online bulletin boards, Twitter Tweets®, social networking chat/postings, calendar-sharing, interactive video games, presence or status updates, rich media (e.g., image) annotations, voice-over-IP conversations, interactive online learning, and many more media, including variations and combinations thereof.
The explosion in electronic communications has led to a corresponding increase in data associated with such communications. However, despite the increased amounts and types of data associated with electronic communications, the data itself is underutilized.
Users may browse the Internet, communicate electronically with other users, perform queries on search engines, and more. But the trail of data they leave behind is under-analyzed and its value is under-appreciated. Further, users' interactions with each other in various electronic communications contexts provide opportunities to link and enrich the data associated the individual users. However, the linking and enrichment have not been performed to the extent desirable for effectively enhancing electronic communications.
Further, the underutilization of electronic communications data has put limitations on the effectiveness of electronic advertising. While electronic advertisements (e.g., online display advertisements) may be targeted to individual users based on, e.g., a user's web browsing history, demographic profile, or geographic location, the data upon which such advertisements are targeted is usually based on a small cross-section of all relevant electronic communications data. For instance, a simple display advertisement may target a user based on what items the user has previously purchased from an online retailer, or currently has in his shopping cart, but will not take into account the user's test messaging history, social network postings, electronic calendar entries, etc. By focusing on only a subset of available data, conventional advertisement targeting techniques are limited in their effectiveness.
The embodiments described in the present disclosure are directed to systems and methods for customizing electronic communications. Such systems and methods may overcome one or more of the problems set forth above. Among other things, the disclosed embodiments include systems and methods for generating and/or displaying customized electronic communications, including personalized communications and/or advertisements.